quick tips
continued…
Whatever the reason, this is a great time of year to get all the little tasks that have been piling up off your plate. And once you have all of these chores taken care of, you can lounge by the pool guilt free. QUICK TIPS ON ORGANIZING YOUR Home office Organize your business cards.
Throw a clothes swap. With the seasons changing, it’s a perfect time to
clean out your closets. Pull out any summer items you didn’t wear last year and any winter items you passed on last year. Plan a neighbourhood clothes swap party to trade your cast-offs for other treasures. Donate any unclaimed threads to a local charity. Organize cosmetics and toiletries for easy retrieval. Take advantage of the height in cupboards under bathroom counters by using plastic storage drawers to store cosmetics and toiletries. Sterilite makes this item, and you can find it at most department stores. Usually it comes with three drawers, but if you have the height, you can stack a second unit on top. Store items in broad categories and label each drawer. Categories may include: dental products, facial and hair products. Memorabilia without mess. If you have bits and pieces of memorabilia piling up all over your home, it’s time to create a memory box. Purchase or repurpose one container for each family member; choose plastic bins, photo boxes, hat boxes, vintage suitcases or old-fashioned picnic baskets to store precious mementos. Be selective about what goes inside, and when the containers are full, remove one item before putting another item inside. Dispose of old medication safely. When purging expired medication, please refrain from flushing the pills down the toilet. This has been found to contaminate municipal water supplies. Check with your local pharmacy to see whether you can drop them off for environmentally safe disposal. Alternatively, inquire whether your municipality offers drop-off points similar to those for hazardous and electronic waste. Round up your recipes. Are your recipes cluttering up your kitchen counters or stuffed in your drawers? Organizing your favourite recipes makes retrieval quick and easy. Purchase a plastic accordion file in your favorite colour with at least 10 slots. Use the labels included to write out specific categories. Categories may include: desserts, appetizers, salads, poultry, beef and seafood. File recipes at the front of the corresponding category and get cooking! 046 new Condo Guide may 18 - jun 1, 2013
Take 15 minutes to go through the stacks of business cards you’ve collected over the year and toss the ones you will never refer to again. To have easier access to the ones you keep, scan them using business card software or staple them to your Rolodex cards alphabetically (use the bigger format cards). If you have several hundred cards, I don’t recommend filing them in the clear plastic sheets because it’s difficult to keep them in alphabetical order, and too time consuming to find the card you need. QUICK TIPS ON ORGANIZING YOUR LIFE Stop “shoulding” on yourself.
Do you feel your life is so “crazy busy” that you never seem to find time for fun? One way to make space for the things that matter most is to re-evaluate what you’ve committed your time to and consider letting go of some obligations. Think of three activities you are doing because you feel you “should” even though you don’t really want to. It could be committees you sit on, volunteer activities you participate in or events you’ve reluctantly agreed to attend. Choose one to let go of for now, and replace it with an activity that brings you joy. Now watch and see what happens.